Out on the edge
Hanging over nothing,
Almost
Stood a bristlecone pine
Ancient in its silent repose,
Caretaker of the land
My steps led me,
Meandering among walls of rock
And mahogany
To the tree
Life springing from stone
But before
Resting at this place, holy
To the eyes of some
Who know the desert
I leaned out,
Lending my weight to the tree’s rough bark
My fingers out
Connecting with the unknown
And in leaning
I asked this being
This keeper of place
For permission to share in the shade
Left by bottlebrush branches
Swaying gently in the warm desert wind
The answer came
Like an electric wave
Of life, and energy
Through my arm
From the tree to my fingers
And on to my being
My bones
Came a warm welcome
A reminder that this place
Was also mine
And in being here,
Under the bristlecone’s shade
I was welcome
So I turned about
And sat on the old, twisted trunk
Having found an old friend
In the desert.
June 13, 2021
Otto De Groff has spent most of his life living in Utah. As a young man, Otto’s father often took him (along with his brothers) to western Utah, where they spent days exploring, hiking, and rockhounding. These experiences gave Otto a rooted respect and love for Utah’s wild places, especially those found along the state’s western edge.
After serving an LDS mission in Mexico, Otto studied at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where he obtained a Bachelor of Science in Wildlife and Wildlands Conservation. Currently, Otto is pursuing a master’s degree at BYU in the same field, with a special emphasis on bristlecone pine (Pinus longaeva D. K. Bailey) forest ecology and variation in growth rates of these trees through time. While studying at BYU, Otto met and married his wife, Maddie, who is from St. George, Utah. They live together with their son, Ferris, in Utah Valley.